icon Blueprint for August

Watch Your Assets

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3 min read

The storm you see on the cover of this issue is not, I promise you, a metaphor for the federal government or the NBA or Harvey Weinstein’s life. It’s just a storm, like the three that hit Florida last year, the same year that fires seered parts of California, as well as properties owned by some NH&RA members in the northeast. The “Storm Warnings” our headline refers to is the need for proper catastrophe insurance coverage, a complex transaction made even more difficult following last year’s disasters that requires careful planning and modeling, all of which is presented here in detail by staff writer Mark Olshaker. (Storm Warnings)

This is our third annual issue devoted to asset management, which has become an increasingly popular topic among our members as your businesses have matured. As Jenny Netzer of the Boston asset management firm TCAM tells Darryl Hicks in this month’s Talking Heads feature, “When portfolios were newer and smaller, organizations tended to view asset management as compliance and reporting. Now most organizations realize that asset management is critical to the performance of their growing portfolios.”

Like any relatively new and evolving practice, asset management is spreading (dare I say, like fire) into new areas as illustrated by NH&RA’s agenda at its third asset management conference this June in Bethesda, MD, the first Metro stop outside of DC. Much of this issue, including the insurance information, is based on panel presentations at that event.

Two new featured topics at this year’s gathering were the impact of tax reform on the tax credit-driven development business and the new income averaging option for LIHTC qualification included in the 2018 omnibus government spending bill. We asked staff writer Mark Fogarty to interview accountants and other industry participants and prepare a Tax Reform Scorecard that tags the good, bad and uncertain results thus far. And we asked our in-house economist, Edward Seiler, to explain Why Income Averaging Matters and its intended consequences. As part of this new process, State Housing Agencies are required to establish their own practices and priorities—which fewer than half have done as we go to press—and you can find a state-by-state guide of those who have.

As we have come to expect, columnist David A. Smith of Recap Advisors has an innovative, long range view of events over time that need to be considered as you manage your company’s assets and provides some storm warnings of his own. (The Guru Is In) And NH&RA executive director, Thom Amdur devotes his column this month to New Developments that enhance HUD’s RAD program.

All helpful information, we hope, for you to consume on a sunny (or stormy) summer day.

Marty Bell, Editor